CLEVELAND — It has been a tough time for small businesses owners, but things may be looking up. This weekend, some are even hoping to turn a corner.
At the Jevon Terance boutique in Lorain, you may find love in the air and a box of chocolate in your bag, free with certain purchases.
"We came out with a red stitched hoodie with my logo on it, and so if you buy anything $50 and up in the boutique, it’s an in-store only special," owner and designer Jevon Terance said.
At No Basis Apparel at Great Northern Mall, owner Althea Young will be offering a 20% discount on her Valentine’s Day items—plus a pinch of optimism.
"We are hopeful for the future with the curfews being lifted," she said. "It’s going to be very telling what happens towards the end of February and March as far as where consumer behavior is.”
It comes as a new survey from CNBC and Survey Monkey shows promise: More than half of small business owners say now believe they can last at least another year. Their confidence comes, in part, from recent re-openings and fewer COVID-19 hospitalizations.
"We are extremely excited about Valentine’s Day," Lisa McGuthry, owner of Our Favorite Things Boutique on Larchmere Boulevard, said. "The numbers have been great."
McGuthry is choosing to stay open Sunday when normally she is closed, since the holiday falls on that day.
"Come Valentine’s Day you cannot go home empty handed," she said. "That’s when we see these numbers increase and it just goes better and better from this point on."
Dru Thompson of Dru Christine Fabrics and Design stresses the importance of supporting small business.
"Because you want to see all your favorite businesses on the other side of this pandemic," she said.
Thompson's store is now even hiring after seeing growth in online sales and sewing classes during COVID-19.
"[It] helped me just redevelop my business strategy and figure out what’s going to work [and] what wasn’t going to work very quickly," she said.
Yet another good sign of hopefully better things to come.
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Editor's Note: The below story aired on February 12, 2021